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Girls can Only be Princesses

I was talking
about my Army days with the boys the other day. It’s not the first time I’ve
talked about it, but it obviously still hasn’t registered in their memory banks
that their mum was once a soldier. A musician soldier, but I still had to do
basic training and in the Australian Army, all soldiers are really soldiers. It’s
a serious business. Anyhoo, Jax looks at me and musters all the authority a
seven year old has, saying:

“Mum you weren’t
in the Army. Girls can’t be in the Army. Girls can only be princesses!”

What? Why would
you say that? Of course girls can be in the Army. They can be prime ministers,
presidents, police officers, CEOs, nurses, doctors, professors, whatever the
hell they want to be!

Jax was not
convinced. So I pulled out my photo album and showed him some pictures of that
glorious time in my life back in 1992. Here’s one of my favorites. Fierce huh?

Well it wasn’t a joke and if you were too delicate, you got your arse kicked,
especially by the male sergeant and corporals. They were definitely of the
opinion that the military was no place for a lady. Screw them. I’d prove them
wrong. Then again, I was never a lady.

But Jax has some
funny ideas about girls. He tells me girls can’t be funny, they can only be
pretty when I tell him having a funny girlfriend is the most important thing.
No Mum, only boys can be funny.

Imagine how this
all resonates with me for a second? My son, MY son, declaring that girls are
not capable of being funny, or a leader, or a warrior, or whatever the hell
they want to be. Naturally I’ll spend the next 20 or so years making sure these
ideas are slapped out of him, but where does it come from?

At the end of
prep, we had a little end of year show and there was a video featuring all the
kids talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up. For some reason
Jax wanted to be a rugby player, and while there’s a very strong chance this
could happen, at that point, he’d never played or watched a match. Where did he
get that idea from?

But all of the
girls – split 50/50 – had two ambitions. Half to be mums and the other to be
princesses. There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be a
mum, but the princess ambition is a little more unlikely if we do the numbers
right? Only one Aussie princess in all of history, so our little Aussie angels
have a fairly unlikely chance of achieving that one. It could happen, nothing
is impossible, but…

When I see stuff
like this, I always wonder why young girls don’t want to be something else at
that age? Did I dream of being a princess or a mother at five, six and seven? I
can only ever remember wanting to be a police woman when I was young. I got
close to doing it too, although I’m glad I didn’t. Do we not talk to them about
these things from a young age? I mean many of these girls had working mum role
models, so it’s not that. I just find it curious that their imaginations are
not as fired up to be firemen or policemen, or other stuff like our little
dudes are. Is it the movies they watch? The cartoons? It’s hard for me to know
because I don’t watch girly TV and movies. Anyone else know?

In the meantime,
my little Jax is getting a big fat lesson in girl power.

Right now he’s
watching YouTube. Oi Jax, pause that a sec. What jobs can girls do when they
grow up?

I grew up in country Australia, went to university in Melbourne studying music and ancient history, joined the Australian Army as a musician, entered the world of public relations, and then decided to head off around the world. That was 1995 and I'm still going, having lived in London, Boston, NYC, Thailand and Singapore - with a couple of short trips back to Australia in between. Singapore-based now, with an adorable husband and two rambunctious sons, my professional background is communication strategy and content marketying, with a focus on business and creative writing. My passion is people from all walks of life, and the amazing diversity of this extraordinary planet. I reckon life is pretty great, even though it can be crap sometimes too. I also blog extensively, with three blogs - my personal blog Without the Bollocks where I talk about life, my professional blog SAJE focused on all things communication, and a kids adventure blog for Singapore. Hey what can I say, I need to write!